This year, the ACGA was able to award 10 scholarships.  These scholarships included a one-year membership in the ACGA, a conference registration, and access to the ACGA Gift Annuity University Webinar series until 6/30/23.  We'd like to congratulate these individuals on their achievements and look forward to helping broaden their gift annuity knowledge.

Andrea Christensen
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Director of Endowment and Planned Giving

Andrea Christensen is the Director of Endowment and Planned Giving at Seattle Repertory Theatre. She works to increase the theater’s endowment and strengthen the planned giving program. Andrea comes to the theater with more than twenty-five years of experience in fundraising, primarily focused on individual giving. She is passionate about building relationships with theater-goers to understand their values and encourage them to leave a legacy that fulfills those values to realize philanthropic impact. Andrea holds a Master of Arts Management degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Her volunteer work includes serving on the board of the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation, as a trip leader and committee chair for the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Adventure Travel program and singing with Choral Arts Northwest.

Chuck Demler
Carroll University
Director of Gift Planning

Chuck Demler is the Director of Gift Planning at Carroll University. He began his professional career as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Service Learning Coordinator at Lawrence University (Appleton, WI), working to leverage the capacities of the university to redress poverty. Previous fundraising experience includes major and planned giving at Lawrence University and the annual fund at Macalester College (St. Paul, MN). Demler holds a bachelor's degree from Lawrence University and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Jennifer Glosser
Presbyterian Senior Living
Director of Donor Outreach

Jennifer Glosser is an executive level servant leader with extensive experience in building strategic, collaborative and successful advancement initiatives in the not-for-profit sectors of healthcare, academic medicine, higher-education and continuing care retirement communities. She has senior leadership skills and is able to capitalize the strengths and energy of team members to drive effective outcomes. Jenny prides herself on having exceptional ability to develop trust-based relationships and partnerships. Her favorite part of her career in philanthropy (+ 20 years) is helping people make the innovative and transformational impacts they want to make…which makes the world a better place.

When Jenny isn’t working, or studying for her Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP©) designation which she expects to complete in September 2022, she is probably with one of her four children, one of her five grandchildren or outdoors with her husband and their two dogs, Briggs & Stratton.

Jenny is truly humbled to receive the scholarship award and honored that it memorializes Terry Simmons, an exceptional thought leader, a difference maker and a mighty force in the planned giving arena. She looks forward to being with you for the conference and broadening her understanding of planned giving vehicles in order to better serve the stakeholders with whom she works. Saying thank you for this scholarship opportunity does not seem like enough. But, THANK YOU, sincerely!

Melanie Herb
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Assistant Director of Planned Giving

Melanie Herb is the Assistant Director, Planned Giving at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Prior to Fred Hutch, Melanie served as the Development Manager at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and as the Development Manager at Year Up Puget Sound. Melanie has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Global Health from the University of Washington, and lives in Seattle with her fiancée Daniel. Melanie enjoys roller skating, cooking, and trying new restaurants in her free time.

Brian Powell
Grove City College
Senior Director of Development

Brian Powell is Grove City College's senior director of development. He is responsible for leading major and planned giving efforts and for building partnerships with Grove City College's alumni, parents and friends; foundations; and corporate donors. Brian has led the College to finish its largest campaign to date including a $7 million contribution to surpass the goal. Since 2017, Brian has led the College to raise more than $79 million including the largest unrestricted gift in the institution’s history. Grove City College has been selected in 2019 and 2020 to receive CASE Educational Fundraising Awards for overall performance recognizing exemplary development programs based on VSE survey data.

In addition to 14 years of serving donors at Grove City College, Brian was a major gifts officer at Carnegie Mellon University. Brian holds a bachelor's degree from Grove City College and a master's degree from Geneva College in higher education.

Rip Rice
The Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando
Capital Campaign Director

Rip Rice is a fundraising professional with 14 years of experience specializing in major gifts. He began his career with CCS Fundraising where he was a campaign director for large capital and endowment campaigns. He then went on to be a major gifts officer for the athletic department at the George Washington University before moving to Orlando, FL to start a family. Currently Rip is the Capital Campaign Director for the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando and is managing a $14,000,000 capital campaign to build a new shelter. When he isn’t fundraising, Rip loves spending time with his wife Logan, and their two kids Tilly and Finn.

Don Rudolph
VNA & Hospice Foundation
Charitable Gift Planner

Results-driven sales and customer service executive with extensive experience in selling and servicing a number of different industries including health care, higher education, luxury retail, computer services and transportation. Strengths include working with and managing groups of people, achieving targeted sales goals and building and retaining customer relationships. Sold and serviced complex projects to senior level executives in Fortune 500 companies. Sold and serviced individuals with high net wealth. Objective is to contribute to an organization that needs further business development and values customer relationships and customer retention.

Cassandra Solmonsen
Neighborcare Health
Leadership Giving Manager

Cassandra was born and raised in Washington state. She has always had a passion for community service, from spearheading her high school’s holiday food and gift drive to currently working in non-profit fundraising, focusing on community centric fundraising practices. She truly believes everyone can make the world a better place, even with one single action.

Cassandra oversees the Leadership Giving program at Neighborcare Health, an FQHC with 29 clinics in the Seattle area. Cassandra’s background is in politics and donor relations. She has both a Bachelor's of Science and a Master of Arts in Political Science with her graduate work focusing on analyzing federally funded housing for people experiencing homelessness and its success across different sub-populations.

Sarah Szabo
Museum of Flight
Planned Giving Officer

I was raised in the Midwest by two librarians who took my sister and me to museums all over the country. I went into school for Museum Studies wanting to work in collections and came out a fundraiser after a game-changing internship at the National Museum of the American Indian. I started my fundraising career in Seattle nine years ago and discovered my passion for legacy giving at my first job during a Capital Campaign. After years doing Major Gifts at Town Hall Seattle and Pacific Science Center, I recently starting my first Planned Giving job at the Museum of Flight and am thrilled to be dedicated full time to legacy giving.

I am an avid scuba diver, cold and warm water; once you have seen a cuddle fish, you will never want to stop. I have traveled to 30+ countries and am still going, and I currently serve on the board of Bushwick Book Club Northwest.

Camille Williams-Ginsberg
Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund
Major Gifts Officer

Camille Williams-Ginsberg (she/her) works at the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF) as their first Major Gifts Officer. During her tenure, she has launched a major donor giving circle, help advance a million dollar campaign, and created a planned giving program. Before TLDEF she worked as a Program Coordinator, Annual Giving at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and as a Development Assistant at Planned Parenthood, where she found her love for philanthropy.

Camille lives in New York City and is proud to work at an organization that focuses on the intersections between gender, race, class and the law. TLDEF works to achieve lived and legal equality for all trans and non-binary folks through its legal, public education and policy work. In her free time, she enjoys spending time in movie theaters, museums and the sunshine.